


Gone for Good

by stardropdream



Category: Chobits
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-02
Updated: 2013-09-02
Packaged: 2017-12-25 08:58:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 918
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/951184
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stardropdream/pseuds/stardropdream
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Yuzuki's first moments in existence are filled with confusion.  She wakes up and she knows she is Kaede.  She wakes up and she knows she is a persocom.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Gone for Good

When she opens her eyes, she knows she is Kaede. Her eyes focus, and the first thing she sees is her little brother. She’s confused for half a moment, because in reality she knew that she should be dead or dying, that she shouldn’t be able to see him with such clarity. But she smiles, because she is happy, because that is her brother and her brother is looking at her expectantly. 

“Good morning, little brother,” she says, warmly. 

But instead of looking delighted, as she expected her brother to look, he just looks stricken, and he looks away. “My sister called me by name.” 

She is confused. She is Kaede. She calls him her brother, and she does not understand why he speaks in such a way and looks so sad and stricken. She does not understand. 

She tries to understand. But there are spots in her memory, moments when she is uncertain. 

“I apologize,” she says. 

Her brother is reaching for her, and she nearly pulls away because she knows she is close to her brother, but he has never touched her hair with such familiarity, never brushed his fingers near where her ear is. He has hugged her, yes. She remembers this. But he has never touched her like this.

“Minoru,” she says, because her brother has always been called by name, and she is unsure. But his expression just crumbles and he pulls his hand back, flinching, as if burned. 

“That isn’t right, either,” he says to himself, refusing to look at her.

She is unsure. She is hurt by his hurt, pained by his pain. She lifts her hand and touches the crown of his head, gentle, not patting his head – he’s always hated that – but just letting the weight of her hand reassure him.

But he only looks sadder. 

She does not know why.

 

\---

 

She knows that her friends visit Minoru, to look after him. The first is a shorter child, the one who won the championship before. Misaki is her name. She and Misaki were friends, competitors. She likes Misaki very much. 

But Misaki does not ask after her. Instead, she asks after Minoru. She asks if he is doing well, asks if he needs anything. 

Minoru tries to smile, but it is a cracked and pained expression that only makes Misaki look as if she will cry. He does not try to smile again. 

There are others who arrive. Some carry flowers. Some carry other gifts as they are invited into their – into Minoru’s home. 

They do not ask for her. 

 

\---

 

The days following do not show improvement. Kaede does not know why her brother is always so sad, always so pained. Perhaps Kaede is still ill. But she feels healthy and operatio—

She feels healthy. 

Her illness must be gone, and that should cause happiness. But instead, her brother looks sadder and sadder by the day. It does not matter how she addresses her brother, he is always pained. He does not look at her. He does not touch her.

She finds him in his study, curling over countless pages of notes and mechanics she does not understand, save that it reminds her of Angel mechanics, and he does not answer her questions when she asks from the doorway, instead flinching away from her as if she has caused him pain.

She hates to see her brother in pain. Hates to think she is the cause of that pain.

She avoids him, then. She leaves him to his notes, leaves him to the mutterings, dark little litanies in the darkness (“Give her a new name?” or “Personality aspects will need updating” or “this isn’t the way I—”). 

On the fourth day of waking up, Kaede catches her reflection in the mirror—

—and she is not Kaede.

The woman who looks back at her is all wrong. She is too tall. Her eyes are too wide, too monochromatic. There are no glasses and yet she sees clearly. Her hair is all wrong – too long, too dark, too curly. 

She is not Kaede. 

 

\---

 

She does not ask her br—

She does not ask Minoru who she is, why she thinks – thought – she was Kaede.

She does not know what the answer would be. She does not know if she wishes for the answer. 

 

\---

 

One week in, she enters the parlor and Sai is sitting there.

He recognizes her instantly but when Sai looks up, she sees nothing but the stranger standing there. Sai does not know her. There is no recognition in her eyes. 

Kaede steps—

She steps back, apologizes, and leaves the room. 

It is worse that Sai does not know her. 

 

\---

 

Minoru meets her eyes for the first time in days. He reaches for her and she is not shocked when something catches on the side of her head, and he pulls back a long chord which he attaches to the terminal. He is typing away new code. 

She understands.

 

\---

 

She blinks her eyes open, and she knows she is a persocom. 

She turns to her owner, her creator, and sees Minoru looking at her with that same pained expression, and even though she knows she is not Kaede, it still upsets her to know he is pained.

No.

Her programming informs her that Kaede would be upset that her brother is pained. She should therefore remedy this instantly.

“Good morning,” she greets. She does not use a name. 

“Good morning, Yuzuki,” he answers in turn.

She is Yuzuki.


End file.
